World Environment Day

Friday was World Environment Day. Every 5th of June is a day used by the United Nations to stimulate worldwide awareness of environmental issues and encourages political attention and action. The theme for 2009 is 'Your Planet Needs You-UNite to Combat Climate Change'.
In Room 10 we looked at climate change. We used a Kiwi Conservation Club magazine as our focus.

First we did a quiz about how we can use less energy and make less C02 (as well as help our Mums and Dads save money). After we had talked about our results we set a goal for the rest of the term about how we can help use lessenergy and make less C02.
We completed a climate change wordfinder, wordworm and complteted a spot the difference. Annie read us a great story about Kiri Kiwi & Willie Weka called Willie the Warrior.

We found out that...

• The suns rays shine on the Earth. Their energy keeps our world alive.

• The suns energy would bounce back into space and we'd freeze if the Earth didn't have a blanket to keep the heat in.
• The blanket is invisible air made up of 21% oxygen( which we need to breathe) 78% nitrogen ( which doesn't do anything), 0.1%- 1% water vapour in the clouds, 0.36% carbon dioxide (CO2) and tiny amounts of other gases. The last 3 make up the blanket. We call then GREENHOUSE GASES.
• It's the greenhouse gases that make the blanket work, but adding more greenhouse gases to the air is like putting another blanket on your bed. It makes the whole world warmer.
  
• People are putting more greenhouse gases into the air, especially carbon dioxide.
  
• The world has already warmed by 0.6degrees Celsius. It's likely to be 3degrees Celsius warmer in the next 100 years!
• Getting warmer has consequences for the world - ice and snow will melt which means the sea level will rise. The weather change will mean that some places will get less rain causing droughts. Some places will get more rain which will mean floods. More storms are likely too.
  
• If you put all these consequences together the following might happen...
  
  • Forests will die
  • Plants and animals will have to cope with their homes changing
  • Droughts cause plants and animals to die
  • Houses will be destroyed
  • Floods will wash away crops
• Today there are 6 billion people living on the Earth. we are using up the ancient fossil fuels and putting stored CO2 back into the air. We are cutting down and burning forests.
  
• That is why there is 1/3 more CO2 in the air than there was 300 years ago. That's why the Earth is getting warmer.
• The carbon cycle is not balanced. The carbon being stored is much less than the carbon going into the air.
• What can we do? - We can use energy wisely and carefully(don't waste it). We can reduce, reuse and recycle eg walk to school, reuse containers, buy from the op shop or Wastebusters, hand our clothes on to someone else, use reusable plastic containers instead of gladwrap, don't use plastic bags from the supermarket (take your own cloth bags) and buy a toy that lasts.